The Diller Hotel

{Downtown}

First Avenue was once lined with brick buildings like this one, which opened exactly one year after the Great Fire of 1889. The curved bay windows at the corner were unusual in Seattle after the fire, as the new building code discouraged such features.

The ground floor has an arched corner entry of rough sandstone and storefronts with cast iron columns. The original owner, Leonard Diller, was a prominent businessman and experienced hotel operator whose previous hotel was destroyed in the fire. This business was unprofitable at first, perhaps because of its distance from Pioneer Square.

However, with the 1897 gold rush it became a headquarters for many leading miners. The hotel was operated by the Diller family for decades; it has since been converted to apartments and is still in their ownership.